the case,
and that were he to offer himself he would be refused. He could not
understand such a state of things, and was obliged to conclude that it
was pride, the pride of an injured and imaginative woman, which had
gone to such lengths that it preferred to sit and nurse its contempt and
hatred in solitude rather than mount to heights of hitherto unattainable
splendour. To make matters worse, she was quite impervious to mercenary
considerations, and could not be bribed in any way.

Finally, Totski took cunning means to try to break his chains and
be free. He tried to tempt her in various ways to lose her heart; he
invited princes, hussars, secretaries of embassies, poets, novelists,
even Socialists, to see her; but not one of them all made the faintest
impression upon Nastasia. It was as though she had a pebble in place
of a heart, as though her feelings and affections were dried up and
withered for ever.

She lived almost entirely alone; she read, she studied, she loved music.
Her principal acquaintances were poor women of various grades, a couple
of actresses, and the family of a poor schoolteacher. Among these people
she was much beloved.

She received four or five friends sometimes, of an evening. Totski
often came. Lately, too, General Epanchin had been enabled with
great difficulty to introduce himself into her circle. Gania made
her acquaintance also, and others were Ferdishenko, an ill-bred, and
would-be witty, young clerk, and Ptitsin, a money-lender of modest
and polished manners, who had risen from poverty. In fact, Nastasia
Philipovna's beauty became a thing known to all the town; but not a
single man could boast of anything more than his own admiration for
her; and this reputation of hers, and her wit and culture and grace, all
confirmed Totski in the plan he had now prepared.

And it was at this moment that General Epanchin began to play so large
and important a part in the story.

When Totski had approached the general with his request for friendly
counsel as to a marriage with one of his daughters, he had made a full
and candid confession. He had said that he intended to stop at no means
to obtain his freedom; even if Nastasia were to promise to leave him
entirely alone in future, he would not (he said) believe and trust her;
words were not enough for him; he must have solid guarantees of some
sort. So he and the general determined to try what an attempt to appeal
to her heart would effect. Having